


14 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days

by Insomnia_Productions



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I love capri to bits, Nicaise (Captive Prince) Lives, Nicaise and Laurent's relationship was so sweet, Not Shippy, On a side note, Post-Canon Fix-It, and lame is great, because he deserves it goddammit, but I just can't? stop crying about nicaise??, canon divergence (sort of), the fact that this fandom is called 'capri' is just my favorite thing, you can pry alive nicaise from my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 20:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14838854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomnia_Productions/pseuds/Insomnia_Productions
Summary: Nicaise is 10 years and 2 months old when he is patted on the head by the Regent.It’s an honour, he is told. Nicaise has never held much stock for honour, but he is old enough to know an opportunity when he sees it.//Snapshots of Nicaise's years at the court: 5 times he felt empty, and 1 time he became whole.





	14 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days

 

**1.**

 

Nicaise is 10 years and 2 months old when he is patted on the head by the Regent. 

 

It’s an honour, he is told. Nicaise has never held much stock for honour, but he is old enough to know an opportunity when he sees it. 

 

He sits before the mirror long after the others have gone to sleep, diligently tracing patterns on his face with a clean brush until his hands remember each stroke. He draws sleek black lines around his eyes, the same colour as the Prince’s, over and over until he could do it perfectly in his sleep. He brushes his hair one hundred times in the night and again in the morning, and ignores the other boys when they make fun of him for it. 

 

Five months later, it pays off. He is chosen by the Regent. Now he eats his meals at the high table, and has his own hairbrush and his own paints and his own mirror. No one makes fun of him anymore, not when they can see the Regent watching him from the corner of his eye, across the hall. The other boys shoot him dirty looks when he flounces past the shared quarters, on his way to his personal bedroom. 

 

He’s won. He knows it. 

 

But a part of him misses sharing a mirror, misses the mild pain of being elbowed out of the way when he spends too long in front of it. Sometimes he even misses the loud taunts that were, beyond all else, human voices. 

 

His new room is awfully quiet. 

  
  


**2.**

 

Nicaise is 10 years and 8 months old when he receives his first set of jewelry. 

 

All pets have jewelry, of course, but this is  _ different.  _ Where the pets of minor lords adorn themselves in light metal plated with gold, what Nicaise wears is pure gold and studded with precious stones. Laid out on a silk cloth on his bed, they look beautiful. 

 

Some of the other pets send parts of their jewelry home, for their families to sell, he knows. From the letters they receive back, the money is nothing to scoff at. Nicaise wonders how much a family could get for just one of the gold hoops in his ears. 

 

But Nicaise doesn’t have a family, so he supposes it doesn’t really matter. 

  
  


**3.**

 

Nicaise is 11 years and 1 month old when he first has sex. 

 

He thinks he’s ready. 

 

He isn’t. 

  
  


**4.**

 

Nicaise is 11 years and 3 months old when he knocks the Crown Prince into the royal pond. 

 

It’s an accident, but he tenses immediately, ready to bolt as soon as he confirms that he hasn’t just murdered the Regent’s beloved nephew—but when the Prince finally surfaces, he looks more confused than angry. And when he looks at Nicaise, recognition flashing through his eyes, he smiles. 

 

After that day, Nicaise stops seeing the notorious blond as The Crown Prince, a distant and solitary figure composed of ice and steel. Instead, he sees him as Laurent, the bookish boy who trains too hard and smiles at horses, and holds Nicaise’s hand under the table after Nicaise has spent a night with the Regent. They stand together on the frays of parties and place bets that Laurent always wins but never enforces. Life is good. 

 

Two years later, his voice starts to crack at odd moments and he knows his time is up. 

 

Laurent offers, softly, to take on his contract. When they walk together to meet the Regent, Laurent’s hand is gentle against his shoulder, like the memory of a brother he might have had, and Nicaise pretends, just for a moment, that he could have this. 

 

They have the same eyes. 

  
  


**5.**

 

Nicaise is 14 years old when a painted head wearing a sapphire earring is thrown at Laurent’s feet. 

 

Nicaise doesn’t know this. All Nicaise knows, now, is the rattle of the cart over unkempt roads, the darkness around him, and the smell of turnips. All in all, he thinks, speaking out on Laurent’s behalf was a serious lapse of judgement. Nicaise always knew that love and morality weren’t worth the trouble, and now he has proof. If he ever sees Laurent again—

 

Nicaise stops himself before he can follow that train of thought, but he knows it will return to haunt him by nightfall. He’s spent a lot of time picturing it: what he will say to Laurent when they next meet, what he’ll make Laurent do in payment for Nicaise’s sacrifice. 

 

But he knows, deep down, that he will never see his Prince again. It’s one miracle he’s alive, another that the Regent’s soldiers appear to have stopped hunting him. To hope for a third miracle would be asking too much—and Nicaise, of all people, knows that all too well. 

 

Still, as the cart rumbles away from Arles, he lets himself remember soft glances and smiles no one else got to see, and he wishes he’d just let Laurent take his contract, all those months ago. 

  
  


**+1**

 

Nicaise is 14 years, 5 months, and 19 days old when he sits in a closet, knees to his chest, trying not to breathe. 

 

Outside, he can hear the stomp of boots and loud voices calling his name. It’s been so long, he’d thought that the world had forgotten him. Evidently, he was wrong. 

 

Then one voice cuts through the others and Nicaise’s eyes open wide. It can’t be possible—some trick of the Regent’s, surely—

 

The voice grows closer, accompanied by footsteps that aren’t nearly as heavy as the rest. Nicaise can barely keep himself from trembling as the voice approaches. Through cracks in the wood, Nicaise can see the light change as the person moves through the room, stopping before the closet. 

 

The doors open. Laurent looks down. 

 

Nicaise has only a moment to register the crown on his head and the golden cuff around his wrist before he’s being hauled violently out of the closet and Laurent—Laurent the ice prince, Laurent the cast iron bitch—is sobbing into his hair. 

 

There is so much—the crown, the cuff, the healthy flush so unlike his usual pallid coloring—and Nicaise thinks, dimly, that it’s going to take years to hear the full story. But he doesn’t care about that right now. 

 

Right now, all he can see is the blue of Laurent’s clothes pressing against his face. All he can feel is Laurent’s arms tight around him. All he can hear is Laurent’s voice, breaking as he whispers Nicaise’s name over and over. 

 

And, right now, that’s enough. 

 

-

**Author's Note:**

> All I wanted from capri was for Nicaise to be happy was that too much to ask
> 
> Honestly, I have so many feelings about all of the characters, but Nicaise is just on a whole other level.
> 
> I debated whether or not to make this fic a fix-it, but I just couldn't bring myself to see him die again, so here, have some fluff~
> 
>  
> 
> This is my first fic for this series - I wasn't really sure about being active in this fandom, but I think I might like to write more, especially about Nicaise and Laurent. So... hey, if you liked this fic and wouldn't mind seeing more - leave a kudos or even (gasp) a comment! Thanks for reading~!


End file.
